A 'Period' Movie Won The Oscar! So Why Are Some Menstrual Health Experts Ambivalent?
The documentary plays on the catch phrase: "A period should end a sentence — not a girl's education." But is it really true that lack of menstrual pads is causing girls to drop out?
The moment the Oscar for best documentary short was announced, Marni Sommer's email account started blowing up.
The award last Sunday night went to Period. End of Sentence, a 26-minute film that profiles women in an Indian village who band together to manufacture affordable menstrual pads.
Sommer, a professor at Columbia University, is one of a small group of public health scholars who for years have been trying to convince fellow researchers and policymakers that the fact that many poor women lack access to menstrual products and hygiene is a serious problem. (For a sense of how lonely Sommer's crusade was during the early years you can read this NPR.)
